Microsoft’s Xbox 360, one of the consoles that marked this decade, could be upgraded next year to a more powerful device. The next console will start shipping at the end of next year, according to ign, which first said that Xbox 720 chipset is “in production.”

The System on a Chip(Soc) that began production in December has the code name “Oban.” Ign sources say that the “Oban” chip is produced by IBM and Global Foundries.

If the first report indicated that Xbox 720 GPU will be derived from AMD’s 7000 series Southern Islands GPU, the second report denies this. Instead, Xbox 720 will be derived from AMD’s 6000 series, a DirectX 11 based graphics card that features multidisplay output, 3D and 1080p HD output, the second report says. If this turns out to be true, Xbox 720 graphics processing power should be six times higher than its predecessor, Xbox 360.

I predict that this will not be the GPU that will be inside Xbox 720, because it makes no sense to add a 2011 graphic card on a console that will probably start shipping in December 2013 in the US and worldwide in 2014. And let’s not forget that Kinect 2 is rumored to come with impressive new features. To support this, Xbox 720 must be a top-notch console.

When PS3 came out in November 2006, for example, there were no games that could use the entire processing and graphic power of the console. Even now, in 2012, the PS3 console is viewed as one of the best consoles, and Sony predicts it has a lifespan of 10 years.